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Learning Maya and/or ZBrush is not simple and requires a lot of time and money (the Maya license cost more than $3000). Perhaps you want to make a prototype with dummy art props and later contact an artist.

As you know the basics of C/C++, you could indeed start with UDK although Unity is also an option. There are plenty of tutorials and resources out there so you can get started rather quickly.

A combination of Prince of Persia and AC is not something trivial... You might want to start with a simpler concept if you plan on making (and finishing) it....

And remember, you are not gonna make a lot of money the first 3-4 years (if any at all)....

As far as your experience goes, if you don't want to spend a long time familiarizing yourself with a programming language then use an existing engine - there are plenty out there. As Yourself said, Unity is a good way to go (and it can easily import models from Blender).

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As far as your experience goes, if you don't want to spend a long time familiarizing yourself with a programming language then use an existing engine - there are plenty out there. As Yourself said, Unity is a good way to go (and it can easily import models from Blender).

Exactly what I would say. Get the free version of unity and use blender for making 3D assets! Plenty of tutorials on both pieces of software too which is nice.

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I would actually advise against UDK for numerous reasons, but the main reason is the cost vs profitability. Check out an article I wrote in my journals awhile back that will address some truth behind UDK and it's viability for an Independent developer. Note this is an older article and the pricing structure may have changed a bit offering a more royalty based license for the full source code version which you wouldn't necessarily require anyway.

Also, just to make note there are far fewer projects and teams using UDK than who use Unity or in house engines. I always speak out against building an in house engine unless you are working with a large AAA game studio but just wanted to mention that. UDK Is very very powerful, more powerful than you are likely to need, also learning Unreal script puts you a step above many other coders in the field but unfortunately not being a member of multiple released projects the AAA companies simply don't care. Many large studios such as Square Soft, Blizzard and so on don't care how much programming knowledge you have they only care about your college degrees and your proof of ability through your previous commercially released projects. (Contact them directly if you want to verify that).

I understand that your post didn't mention anything about working with other studios, but as "Yourself" pointed out, game development starts with years of making no money whatsoever. 3 - 4 years from now you might be interested in joining a development team and moving in to profitable ventures as well as working on your dream projects. It's better to know now what will start making you more valuable to small independent teams so that you might have that option later on. Unfortunately UDK actually closes more doors for an entry level developer than it opens. Raw programming talent and being experienced with engines that smaller companies use open way more doors as there are just way more small companies that are willing to hire an entry level person than there are large companies (who might use UDK).

My suggestion is that if programming and design are the fields that you would like to go in to for game development that you focus solely on those and get good at them. It is very rare (I would go as far to say NEVER) that someone gets decent enough at programming, design and graphics that they can make a game that people will actually want to play. Programming is a life long venture that requires thousands of hours of research and practice to get good with. Graphics is the same thing, requires thousands of hours of study and practice to get good with and still requires some artistic ability that you may or may not have.

As far as making your own game you are right to choose a full featured engine and dev kit such as UDK or Unity and learn to use it to do what you want as this will greatly increase your productivity. By all means if you are set on using UDK go for it, just want to advise you that beyond your own personal uses it's not likely to get YOU any farther in this field at this time. The UDK license is simply to expensive for non AAA game studios to use (no it's not $99 it actually racks up to hundreds of thousands AND they take large royalty's after the first $50,000 of sales.) Hidden fee's at their finest, make sure you get in contact with Epic and get the real cost information that you will have to comply with to release your game on the platform(s) that you are targeting.

Also for programming as you mention you are a bit of a beginner, I'd like to point out another article I wrote in my journal recently. This might be a step back and might be information you are already aware of but it's a bit of a primer for beginners to make sense of what programming is. If you are interested please read this article as well, hopefully between my warnings in this post and these two articles you will have a bit more information to properly make your decisions on what you want to do going forward both for this game and for your future possibilities.